1. Field of Invention
Embodiments exemplarily disclosed herein relate to systems and methods for locating faults in electromagnetic shielding.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In order to protect the circuit components of electronic equipment from potentially damaging electromagnetic radiation, such as an externally-sourced electromagnetic pulse (EMP) or other interference signals such as radar, broadcast radio and television, cellular phone, etc., it is customary to house electronic equipment within some form of electromagnetically shielded enclosure (e.g., a cabinet, a room, a building, etc., collectively referred to herein as an “enclosure”). Once the electronic equipment has been housed, the shielding effectiveness of the enclosure should be verified.
Conventionally, the shielding effectiveness of an enclosure is tested before installing electronic equipment therein. The shielding effectiveness of the enclosure can be tested in a laboratory setting or in the “real world” where the enclosure is deployed for use. Subsequent to testing, it is typically assumed that the shielding effectiveness of the enclosure will remain the same over time. It is, however, not uncommon that the shielding effectiveness of any enclosure will degrade over time. Indeed, there is a government agency “verification” requirement (MIL-STD-188-125) that mandates the ability to test the shielding effectiveness of enclosures after the enclosure has been deployed and after electronic equipment has been housed therein. Such testing can be made very difficult or impossible simply due to the location in which the enclosure is deployed. For example, enclosures are often deployed to remote locations such as Antarctica, deserted islands, jungles, mountain peaks, and other similar locations that are difficult to access and/or are inhospitable to humans as well as to the enclosures themselves. Thus, this strict verification requirement can create many problems that are typically encountered when attempting to conduct on-site testing of the shielding-effectiveness of the enclosure.
The primary purpose of electromagnetic shielding is to substantially reduce exterior incident magnetic and electric fields by several orders of magnitude to protect internal equipment from interference or damage. Likewise, electromagnetic shielding is also used to contain internally generated electric and magnetic fields to prevent exterior equipment from being affected by the fields.